Inter’s interest for Cristiano Biraghi is a further sign of Beppe Marotta’s desire to build a squad which relies heavily on Italian players, according to Tuttosport.
Antonio Conte achieved unprecedented success with Marotta at Juventus and could call upon leaders such as Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci and Claudio Marchisio.
The pair now wish to replicate the same model in Milan and it is for this reason Inter have signed Stefano Sensi and Nicolo Barella, while also keeping Alessandro Bastoni at the club and promoting Sebastiano Esposito from their academy.
Biraghi’s arrival from Fiorentina would increase the number of Italians on Inter’s books to 12, alongside Padelli, Berni, Ranocchia, Bastoni, D’Ambrosio, Gagliardini, Barella, Sensi, Candreva, Politano and Esposito.
Inter have not had this many homegrown players in their squad since the 2000-01 campaign, when Di Biagio, Vieri, Cirillo, Ferrari, Serena, Brocchi, Macellari, Ballotta, Ferrante, Pirlo, Robbiati and Colombo were all at Appiano Gentile.
TS reminded readers that Di Biagio and Vieri were the only fixed starters in that XI, however, while Cirillo and Ferrari battled for the same place in defence.
Hector Cuper’s Inter side had 11 Italians during the 2002-03 season, which saw the Nerazzurri finish second in Serie A and reach the Champions League semi-finals.
The paper suggested Conte and Marotta would have pulled off ‘a miracle’ if such results were achieved again during the next nine months.
